In a computer system, new servers may be introduced as appropriate to the operation situation. However, with the growth of the scale of the computer system, the amount of an administrator's operations for introducing new servers increases. The increase in the amount of the administrator's operations is likely to cause frequent operational errors. The frequent occurrence of the administrator's operational errors makes it difficult to provide a computer system of high reliability and availability. Therefore, reducing the administrator's operational errors is important.
According to the inventor's investigation, there is the following technique (a non-patent literature 1) as a conventional implemented technique that facilitates setup for a SAN boot (boot via SAN).
As preliminary settings, an administrator checks a MAC address and an HBA (Host Bus Adapter) WWN (World Wide Name) of a server to be newly introduced (hereinafter referred to as a new server) and determines a LUN (Logical Unit Number) to be used in a SAN (Storage Area Network) boot. The administrator further determines an IP address corresponding to the MAC address and registers this information with a DHCP server. The administrator further registers the WWN of the HBA and the LUN to be used in the SAN boot with a BSM (Boot SAN Manager) server. The new server includes an NIC (Network Interface Card) supporting PXE (Preboot Execution Environment). Then the administrator powers up the server. The PXE of the powered-up new server issues a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) request to obtain a temporary IP address of the new server from the DHCP server. The new server issues a PXE request to the DHCP server to obtain an IP address of a PXE server and a file name of an NBP (Network Bootstrap Program) from the PXE server. The new server issues a TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) request to obtain the NBP from the PXE server. The new server starts with the NBP and issues a boot parameter request to the Boot SAN Manager (BSM) server to obtain a boot parameter from the BSM server. The new server sets the boot parameter for a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and the HBA, invalidates the PXE boot, and restarts. The new server can further SAN-boot according to the boot parameter.
Further, there is the following technique (a patent literature 1) as to a SAN-boot of a new server.
As a preliminary setting, an administrator registers an OS to be used in each new server with a management server in a manner that the OS is associated with a WWN. When a new server is connected to a SAN, the management server obtains the WWN of the new server from an FC switch. The management server also identifies the OS from the WWN. A storage device generates a copy of the OS to be used for a SAN boot. The FC switch sets a path so that the new server can access the OS. In this manner, the new server connected to the SAN can be set to be booted through the SAN boot.